298 Analyses of Books. [Ocr. 
has in his own particular province never been approached. It 
is both singular and satisfactory to observe that although the 
perceptions seldom become more acute with the lapse of years, 
he has in the supplement given unquestionable proofs that all 
his powers of design and execution continue unimpaired. 
The list in the supplement is, as we have already said, in- 
complete ; not, we should hope, from any fault or neglect on the 
part of Mr. Bewick. We well know the difficulty in a pro- 
vincial town of procuring good specimens, and we would 
heartily forgive him any reluctance he might feel to compro- 
mise his reputation by engraving from bad ones. The possessors 
of rare British birds do not seem to be yet thoroughly aware of 
the advantage they deny themselves of having their specimens 
imperishably preserved by fac similes from the graver of Mr, 
Bewick. 
The birds are arranged somewhat promiscuously in the Supple- 
ment. We must content ourselves with presenting little more 
than asort of Catalogue Raisonnée, interspered with such notices 
as do not appear in the text, but which may not be wholly 
uninteresting. oignG ye 
and Birds. 
Falcoe Lagopus—Lin. (Gmel.) Rough Legged Faleon.— 
There is nothing very remarkable connected with the history of 
this bird. Montagu considers it the same as the Falco Pin- 
natus. In size, general aspect, and the fulness of the plumage, 
it resembles more the eagle than the falcon and hawk tribes. 
It is almost a pity that Linneeus had not originally separated by 
a genus aqua, the proper eagles from the smaller birds of prey. 
Cuvier has done something of this kind by a division into the 
noble and ignoble, beginning with the falcons, and placing the 
eagles after them as the ignoble. This arrangement is singularly 
fanciful, and proceeds on a fallacious assumption. A habit arti- 
ficially imposed by man cannot constitute a ground of systematic 
distinction. Besides, it is the fierce untameable spirit of the 
eagle, which, sternly resisting all the attempts of man at subju- 
gation, shows his true greatness of nature, and entitles him to 
the character of noble. We say nothing here of the taste dis- 
played by the eminent naturalist in question, in making the he- 
reditary and acknowledged monarch of the sky descend from 
that throne on which he has been seated by the common con- 
sent of mankind in all ages. 
We are almost inclined to quarrel with Linneus for not tam- 
pering a little with system, by placing him first in the list, and 
before the haggard, hungry, foul-feeding, foetid race of vultures. 
Strix Bubo—Lin. Le Duc ou Grand Duc—Buf. Eagle 
Owl, or great Eared Owl.—The most sage and dignified, if not 
the largest of the owl tribe, justifying by its sedate and thought- 
ful look the conceit of the ancients, which made it symbolical 
of wisdom. The cut affords a striking instance of the success of 
